Grammar Nazi by blackdragonflower

Summary: Matt is doing a report for History class since he'd procrastinated by playing videogames. Mello sneaks up behind him and gives him a playful scare. Soon, Mello is correcting Matt's gramatical and spelling errors and Matt calls him a grammar Nazi. And Near makes a fun appearance!

Characters belong to Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

---

Mello snuck up behind an unexpecting Matt. The boy in the striped shirt was writing something, bent over a page like a hunchback. He tapped the side of the pencil against the side of his head before using the eraser to scratch an itching spot. He returned to writing, flipped a page in a textbook, then sighed deeply. Graphite made scritch-scratching noises as it shed itself onto the paper. Mello looked over Matt's shoulder curious to see what his couterpart was up to. 'A report? Ugh...' Mello smirked and leaned closer to Matt's ear.

"Hey Matt." The red head jumped three feet from his chair surprised. He whirled around so fast he lost his balance and the chair tipped over spilling him onto the floor. Mello had to bite his lower lip to surpress the urge to laugh. Snickers and a quiet snort penetrated his defenses and Mello quickly shoved them back down.

Matt looked up at Mello from the floor. His scared face went to a happy, smiling one. "Mello! It's you!"

"Who else?" Mello grinned showing off his white teeth. "What ya doin?" Mello pushed around the scraps of paper. Matt got up from the floor and righted the chair.

"Writing a report for History class... it's about World War II... I picked the vehicles and weapondry..." Matt flushed faintly and bit his lip shy.

"Hmm... interesting topic choice Matt... When's this due?"

"...Tomorrow..."

Mello sighed. "Let me guess you just started tonight?"

"Yeah..."

"What the heck were you doing?!" Mello eyed the homework and Matt's neat, yet scribbled handwriting.

"Playing videogames..." Matt admitted shrinking in Mello's presence. Mello exhaled and picked up a book on the table.

"Matt... am I going to have to hide those dang videogames again to keep you on track with your schoolwork?" Matt gulped.

"N-no! Of c-course not!" Matt stuttered. He sat down in his chair again and picked up his pencil. "I r-really need to g-get back to work M-Mello..." Mello snorted.

"See that it gets done Matt..."

"Fine..." Matt pouted and returned to flipping through a book. He quietly began to mutter to himself. Mello watched him quietly, so as to not disturb him. Mello had to admit, Matt was a funky kid, but he was likable. That was probably one of the reasons the blonde didn't pick on him, that and Matt was loyal. "Let's see...M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle... also BAR... may be fired from shoulder or hip..." Matt quickly scribbled information down. "The BAR can fire up to 450 rounds per minute up to an effective range of 1,800 feet." Mello smiled, hidden in among the textbooks were a few manuals for war videogames. Matt was a curious one all right.

Mello just watched him quietly for a few more minutes before something on the paper began to bother him. He squinted his eyes and frowned, he needed that one word fixed. "Matt..."

"Uh huh?" Matt was writing down another sentence, engrossed in his research assignment.

"You made a grammer mistake."

Matt looked up. "I did?"

"Yeah, right here. You put 'The BAR were used' it should be was used." Matt nodded.

"Thanks Mello. I owe you one." Matt hurridly fixed the sentence and returned to his last train of thought. Mello found another small mistake. He told Matt about it and the younger boy went about fixing it. Soon Mello was correcting Matt's simple mistakes like wildfire. Matt stopped and closed a book with a 'fwump'. He gave Mello the eye. "Mello... you're being a spelling and grammar Nazi."

"What?"

"You. Are. Being. A. Nazi."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Well it's not my fault you used the wrong form of 'there' Matt."

"No, I used the right one... it's their, with a e-i-r." Matt spelled out.

"No, it's e-r-e." Near appeared in the door and spotted the paper. He yawned, it was pretty late at night.

"Could you keep it down? Oh, and it's they're spelled t-h-e-y-'-r-e, as in they are... They are partly the reason the Allies won the war... is the sentence you should have." The white haired, top student, left as mysteriously as he'd come leaving the two other boys dumbfounded.

"What the hell was that?" Mello questioned his eyes narrowed as he glared at the spot where Near had been standing.

"Hey... he's right... it is they're as in they are..."

"MATT!"

"What?"

"Never take his side..."

"Yeah but..."

"But nothing... change it now." Matt sighed and changed the there to Mello's answer. Mello rubbed an eye sleepy and nudged Matt's shoulder, "Hey you... hurry up alright. It's way past your bedtime Matt." Mello walked out yawning. When Matt was sure that he was gone he erased the there and replaced it with the one Near had mentioned.

"Sorry Mello... but this grade is important... and I can't afford to be wrong..." When Matt had finished writing the last word to his report he put the papers into a neat pile and yawned. He put his head down on a textbook thinking before he was out like the light.