L x Misa (whatever it's called) & Mello x Matt. NOT a Light hate fic, FYI.

Hey u guyses! This fanfic is for my sister. I, personally, do not have much of an interest in Death Note; so most of the characters might be way ooc (mello and Near are purposefully ooc. mello is supposed to be gayer than normal, and Near is an eight year old in this, I had to do it X3.)

Disclaimer: So, yeah, if I owned Death Note, my sister would die of happiness, and, frankly, she is not dead, so. . . I must not own Death Note! (Shocker, I know.)

Now, on to the story! ; 3

L's POV

Click, Click, Click. The laptop's light shed off of the screen onto my skin, illuminating the dark room. It was 3:08 a.m., or so the alarm clock says. I have not slept in two days, but I don't need to. All of the energy I lose from lack of sleep is replaced with the sweet, artificial energy of ultra- sugared coffee. I could sacrifice looks for time easily.

Outside of my door, I heard little footsteps, gently padding up to my bedroom. Then, a quiet knock sounded from the closed door. It slowly opened, revealing a young, trembling figure.

"What is it now, Near?" I asked my eight year old brother, who stood, hugging his blanket, next to my bed.

"Ryuzaki, I had another scary dream." He sniffled, on the verge of tears.

Sighing, I got out of my bed and picked him up. "C'mon. Let's go back to bed, now. Those dreams aren't real, you know. Just scary." I ruffled his pale hair, walking down the dark hall to his room.

"Okay, Ryuzaki." Near said back.

He had been having these kinds of nightmares since our parents died. Our Mom, Dad, Aunt, and Uncle were victim to a highly murderous disease that killed a bunch of people, them being four of them. Now we live with our grandfather by the name of Watari, and cousin, Matt, whose parents had also been killed. Next-door is a family friend, Mello. His family life is dysfunctional, so he spends about six days a week over at our house. Let's just say, in the span of less than a week, Watari had suddenly had a lot of new brats to take care of.

I put Near down next to his door. He ran over to his bed and snuggled into the thick covers. I picked up a book from the floor of his small room and put it down next to him, turning his bedside lamp on.

"Here, read this until you feel like you can fall back asleep without having another nightmare." I told him, patting his head and walking back towards the empty hallway.

"Okay. G'night, Ryuzaki." He happily called. I walked slowly back to my own bedroom, tired. I guess two days without sleep, even with coffee, is impossible to beat. I got back to my dark bedroom, feeling my way over to my bed, and put the laptop on my bedside table which until now, only held my textbooks for school. I lay down on the mattress, on top of the blankets. Slowly but surely, my heavy eyelids closed, and I drifted off into a dreamless, peaceful slumber.

Be-be-be-beep. Be-be-be-beep. An annoying, shrill beeping sound filled my room. I looked over to my bedside table, realizing that my alarm clock was, actually, on the floor, about three feet from my bed. Lazily, I rolled off of my bed and picked up the little alarm, putting it on sleep. The time read 6:00 a.m.

'About three full hours of sleep.' I thought as I walked over to my textbooks and laptop, picking them both up and sliding them into my ratty sack of a backpack.

"L, come down, it's time for breakfast." Mello said outside of my door. Apparently, he'd slept over at our house again.

"Okay, I'm coming down in a little bit." I called over to him. "Go ahead and wake up Near for me, will you?"

"Sure." He replied, his footsteps receding down toward my little brother's room.

Opening my door was like walking into a pit of brightness, hence my room being so dark, with the curtains drawn and no light fixtures besides a small lamp on the desk where I do my homework. Once downstairs, still squinting form the light, I saw that my younger cousin, Matt, was already down, eating cereal while playing an old school game-boy. Watari was probably already out for the day, doing whatever his job may be.

"Sup, L?" Matt asked vaguely, too immersed in his small game system to actually care.

"Nothing." I replied, grabbing a slice of vanilla cake from the refrigerator.

"Yo, Matt. Put your stupid game down and actually eat something." Mello had come down the stairs and was gesturing to the untouched cereal bowl next to the young gamer. "Geez and that cereal have chocolate chunks in it, too. What a waste." The blonde sighed dramatically for emphasis.

"Ugh, fine." Matt rolled his eyes overdramatically, turning off his game boy and picking up a spoon to eat his breakfast with.

I don't think they knew this yet, but I could just tell that the two boys had a thing for each other. They're both in their more 'experimental' phase of puberty, so it wouldn't be unnatural for Mello and Matt to be testing their boundaries. Plus, Mello was so obviously gay. His hair has a girly bob cut, he wears girl-like skinny pants (which he argues are "totally normal"), and his attitude is just, well, sortta gay. For Matt, though, it is harder to tell. The only way I know is that the only person he really trusts or listens to is Mello. That, and may have read his 'journal' while he wasn't at home.

"Morning, Ryuzaki." Said a tired Near, lazily rubbing his eyes as he climbed down the stairs.

"Hey, why does he get to call you that when you hate it when the rest of the world's population says it?" Mello shouted waving his hands around in the air at the word 'world'.

"He's eight years old. He can call me whatever he wants." I replied, putting a plate of toast down next to said second grader. Near hungrily wolfed the whole thing down in less than two minutes.

"God, Near. Eat your food, don't inhale it." Matt eyed the small boy, amused.

"Come on; let's hurry to get ready for school. Do you want ANOTHER tardy slip, Mello? Matt?" I glanced at each boy sternly before we all went upstairs to get hygienically ready for an entire school day, even though Matt would probably just play video games until we had to leave.

First, since I'm sixteen and can drive, I have to drop off Near to his elementary school. Then, I drop Matt and Mello off at their Middle school, where they will annoy every other seventh grader in their class, but still make soaring grades, somehow. Then I'll get to my high school, where I'll meet up with my only companion (I can't exactly call him my 'friend'), Matsuda. We both just sortta stick together, because everyone at our school either hates or ignores us. The worst one of them is Light Yagami. The most popular guy in school, he is perfect in sports, looks, and smarts. He is also just a hairsbreadth away from getting the most popular girl in school to totally fall head over heels for him. Misa Amane.

"OKAY, EVERYONE LETS GO!" I shouted at the top of my lungs to the other three inhabitants of the house.

"OKAY, COMING!" they all shouted back.

This had all become a sort of routine. I shout, they shout, we go to school.

The four of us jammed into my small car, and we were off. Once I pulled into Near's school's driveway, the little boy jumped out, waved, then ran off to his rather small huddle of friends. I knew a few of them; I only really recognized a little girl named Linda, tough. She was really nice to Near all of the time, she was also an outstandingly good artist, or so Near says.

Waving one last time at Near, Mello and Matt and I rode away to the Middle School that was considerably closer to the school I went to.

"Mello, don't sneak any chocolate into class, the same goes for your video games, Matt. One more conference about that, and you could get suspended." I told them. A second later, I heard and agitated sigh followed by the sound of them emptying out their pockets.

"Thanks, guys. You can get them back at the end of the day. Now get outta here, we're at your school." I shooed them away, and they ran into the school, probably trying not to be late. Their school started a bit earlier than other schools would normally.

I quickly drove out of the driveway and sped the rest of the way to the high school I go to. Once there, I parked the car and walked into the crowded hallways. Scanning the room, I easily spotted Matsuda.

…. Being picked on by Light Yagami. Sighing, I walked over to poor little Matsuda, for my locker was only a foot away from the scene. He looked over at me and mouthed the word 'help'. Quietly, I nodded, taking the contents out of my locker, replacing them with the other contents from my backpack.

'How do I tell the most intimidating person in the grade to stop picking on my only companion? Should I just ask him to? Then, what if he starts to pick on me? I don't want to start the day with that again. Ugh, what should I do?' A million questions swarmed through my head. Slowly, I stepped up behind Light, and was about to tap him on the shoulder, when a girl's voice came up from the side.

"Light-kun! Stop picking on him already, what'd the poor nerd ever do to you?" Misa Amane's blonde pigtails bounced as she stormed up to the teen. As quickly as we could, Matsuda and I backed away about three feet, as not to be seen.

"You alright?" I asked the scared boy next to me.

"Yeah, that was close, wasn't it?" Matsuda replied, smiling a little. We had been each other's only companions since the beginning of middle school (the only reason we didn't count each other 'friends' was because of our polar opposite personalities.)

We turned back to the scene in front of us, where Misa Amane was currently scolding Light, who looked at her apologetically, but unperturbed. Everyone knows how much of a crush he had on the blonde cheerleader. She was pretty and mildly athletic; if you count cheer a sport. She never hated on people of lesser popularity, which was what made her so popular.

As fast as Matsuda and I could, we hurried from Light to our first class, Health Class with Mr. Ryuk. He's a strange man with an almost inhuman body structure, and had a strange obsession with apples. If someone gets in trouble in his class, he records their name on a black spiral notebook, and promptly gives them a week of detention. The grade has nicknamed it his 'Death Note".

"So, how did your encounter with Light Yagami start?" I asked.

"He called me a geek, and I just ignored him. I think he was trying to get a reaction from me, and he started to shout at me, and then you got here." Matsuda explained.

"You know better than to provoke Light, Matsuda." I told him. Nearing the classroom.

"Hey! Wait up!" A high- pitched voice rang from behind me. Looking back, I saw none other than Misa Amane. Why should she want to talk to us? We stopped, and the girl ran to catch up with us.

"Thanks, Misa-Misa isn't that good at keeping up with people." She said.

"It's alright. Why, may I ask, do you want to talk to us? No offense, but if people see you with us, it won't fare well with your reputation." I replied nonchalantly.

"I just wanted to apologize for Light-kun's actions. He doesn't think before he acts sometimes." Misa said.

"Okay, apology accepted." I replied.

"You're smart, right?" the girl asked, turning toward me. Damn, she's random.

"You can put it that way." I simply said.

"What're you saying, L? You're the top kid in the grade, just above Light Yagami." Matsuda butted in.

"Wow, really?! You are smart!" Misa exclaimed, surprised. "I asked 'cuz my parents will be mad if I get a low grade on another test, and I need someone to help me. Light-kun said he didn't want to help me, and I should find another person to study with." She said sadly.

"What subject do you need help in?" I inquired.

"Math, History, Language, Science, and Foreign Language." She replied.

"That's ALL of them." Matsuda muttered under his breath.

"Sure, I'll be free today after school, is the library okay?" I told her, ignoring Matsuda.

"Okay! Misa-Misa will be there at four!" Misa said, skipping off just as the bell rang.

"Come on." Matsuda and I ran to Mr. Ryuk's classroom, barely making it before the late bell.

The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly. The only downside was that, at lunch, Light, who was only half listening to Misa's rants, kept shooting me evil glares. I don't know what's up; they (meaning the entire student body except Matsuda) normally just completely ignore me.

Finally, the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. I left quickly to my locker, throwing my stuff into my backpack before running out the doors to my car, which I got into and sped the entire way to Matt and Mello's school, barely making about three green lights. When I got there, the two boys were waiting, as usual. They got out of school fifteen minutes before me, so I have to hurry to get there. Pulling up, they threw their bags into the trunk, scampering into the back seats to retrieve their confiscated treats from the morning.

"Hey, guys, we're going to the library today." I told them.

"What? The LIBRARY?! Are you crazy, I hate it there." Mello said, doubtfully munching on his chocolate.

"Oh, okay. I can take you home, just give me all of your chocolate so you can concentrate on your homework, no problem." I said back.

"You're evil, you know that?" Mello spat at me.

"What do we need to do there anyway?" Matt asked, looking up from his 3DS skeptically.

"I'm tutoring someone in my grade." I answered; pulling into the driveway of the Elementary school Near goes to. A moment later, said child's hair was visible in the ocean of kids, making its way toward my car. Finally, Near's face appeared next to the backseat window. Since Matt was the oldest of the three children, at age thirteen, he moved into the passenger seat, Near taking his place next to Mello.

"Hey, Mello. Can I have some of your candy?" Near asked the adolescent, reaching out for some uneaten chocolate on the floor of the car.

"For one, it's not just candy, its chocolate, and two, NO!" Mello yelled, pulling away his chocolate possessively.

"Mello, let the boy have some chocolate. We can always get more for you." I said sighing.

"But it's not FAIR, L." Mello's attitude was coming on again.

"Mello, would you just give him a little bit of chocolate without the car exploding at least once?" Matt asked, for the blonde had distracted him from his game.

"You too, Matt? I thought we were friends!" Mello shouted, but gave Near a piece of chocolate anyway, with a reply of "Thanks, Matt." Which he ignored.

"Geez, you sound like a girl, Mello." Matt replied, unfazed.

"WHAT?! I do not!" Mello countered.

"WHATEVER, we're here, go read a book or something." I snapped. I looked at the car's clock, which read 3:45. Good, I wasn't late. We walked toward the building, me in front, holding Near piggyback style, and Mello and Matt arguing behind me.

"Why are we here, Ryuzaki?" Near asked.

"I'm helping someone with their homework." I replied.

"Who?" Near asked back.

"A girl, you've never met her." I explained. At this point, the two other boys had stopped fighting and were curiously peering over my shoulder.

"Looks like this is the closest you'll ever get to dating, helping girls with homework." Mello joked.

"Shut up." I pushed him, receiving a glare back.

"What? It's the truth." The blonde said defencively.

Then, I saw Misa at the front door, waving at me. "Hi, L-kun! Misa-Misa got here a little early on accident." She said bouncing up toward me.

"Oh, hi Misa." I greeted her, looking slightly to the side to see Mello and Matt staring at Misa with curious eyes. Near was already in the library, probably. He'd run ahead of us once Misa came up to us.

"Who're you?" Matt asked Misa.

"Matt, don't ask questions like that, it's rude." I glared over at him.

"Hey, my name's Misa. L-kun is helping me with some homework." Misa said happily. She had a little bounce to her step as we entered the stuffy building. As I predicted, Near was at the teen section, reading a book intently. His teacher had suggested moving him up a few grades, but he wanted to stay with his age group.

Misa and I sat down at a table decently far away from other people to help us concentrate.

Overall, she wasn't horrible at the lessons, but simply confused with the problems and phrases. The good thing was that Misa wasn't discouraged when she got an answer wrong, if anything, the blonde girl was empowered to get the next answer right. We worked until I was content that she knew the material well enough.

"Thank you, L-kun!" She said as I rounded up Near, Mello, and Matt.

"It's not a problem." I waved to her as she walked back to her car, waving back. Watching her leave, I let a tiny smile adorn my face, of which Mello noticed.

"Oooooooo, looks like someone's got a crush!" He sang (in a very girl- like manner).

"Shut up." I said back. "I don't have a crush."

"Oh, you totally do, don't deny it, L." He said back, sassily flipping his hair out of his face.

"Mello, I do not have a crush. Shut up." I said again, walking toward my car.

"He SO has a crush, right Mattie?" Mello murmured to Matt.

"Yeah, I agree. And don't call me 'Mattie'." The red head said back boredly. Unlike Mello, he wasn't interested in girly things like gossip (no duh!).

"Ryuzaki, what's a crush?" Near tugged on my sleeve.

I let him climb onto my back piggyback- style before answering, "A crush is when one person 'falls in love' with another person."

"Ohhhhh, I see." He said back, giggling. Then, Near turned towards Mello and said, "I see what you mean, Mello."

I sighed, "Not you too, Near."

"Well, Mello has a point, Ryuzaki." Near said back innocently.

"Well, think what you want, but I don't want any of you to spread stupid rumors, you hear?. Our schools are very interwoven with friends and relatives, so anything would get passed to my school. You know I am literally at the bottom of the popularity chain, so I don't want to make that chain any lower." I said.

"Sure, whatever." Matt said. Matt was the only one in our family that has the ability to have virtually no life except for video games and still become the second most popular kid in school. Mello was unpopular, but still respected, due to his being best friends with Matt. Near was in a grade too young to have chosen popularity status (lucky him!).

"You don't understand, Matt. You actually have people besides Matsuda who respect you." I said back.

"Hey, you have that Felix dude, right?" Mello interjected,

"Felix just hangs out with Matsuda and I. He doesn't actually respect me, It's different." I said back.

Felix was a Polish kid who transferred into our grade halfway through the year and was instantly put into the bottom ranks with Matsuda and me. His only actual friend was Matsuda. I just put up with him until he had to go somewhere else. It's not like he was bad, he just had this horrible resemblance to a Valley Girl, and had even adapted to a Polish version of the Valley Girl accent , making being around him for more than five minutes extremely difficult.

"Well, at least you have Matsuda." Matt said, ending the topic.

The drive home was quiet, save the sounds of Matt's game boy and Mello chewing a chocolate bar.
Once we got home, I herded the younger boys inside and helped Near with his pajamas before climbing into bed myself, not caring to put on pajamas. I pulled my laptop from my backpack, which I'd dropped on my bedside table.

I tried in vain to clear my mind and focus on my computer, but my thought always drifted back to a certain ditsy blonde and proclamation made by Mello.

'No I don't have a crush!' I thought forcedly, but as my mind continued to wander, the question changed to 'Do I have a crush?'

DRAMA! Please review! Did anyone get the Felix joke? Thank you for your time!