Boys Just Wanna Have Fun

Sometime after the chaotic mess where L was stuck in the closet (no, that's not a reference to his sexuality!), he uncuffed Beyond and kicked the chair he had been sitting in away from him and told the boy, "You have one last day here and you already spent most of today a free man. You might as well finish off your time free as well." Beyond had hobbled up from his seat, gave a stiff bow to the detective, and then shuffled quietly out the room and up the stairs.

Upon reaching the third floor, he walked up to one of the rooms and kicked it until Matt opened it up.

"What do you want?" He muttered.

"Don't be like that, Matty," Beyond said in a normal voice for once. Not his normal voice (with which he was usually cackling like a hyena while grinning like a Cheshire cat), but a tone of voice that hopefully wouldn't still scare off the boy. "Let me in." He didn't ask it and without an invitation, he pushed past him and into the room.

Mello and Near were sitting on the floor, a deck of cards on the carpet and each had a hand. A fan of cards in an empty spot suggested that that's where Matt had been sitting. B sat next to the spot, kneeling quite gracefully for having his hands still tied up.

The other three tried to ignore him as they went about their game of Go Fish. Beyond looked over to Near's hand and whispered, "Mello has the three you're needing."

"I heard that, damnit!" Mello shouted at him.

Near looked over at him with a raised eyebrow. "So…can I get that three?"

Mello narrowed his eyes with a fierce glare. "You didn't just fix your mouth to ask that."

Near shrugged. "It'd be rude to not take such excellent advice."

"I know, huh?" Matt said. "I too have a three. Hand it over, Near."

Now Near looked pissed! "You know what? Screw this game." He put his hand back on top of the deck and backed out of the circle. With a heavy sigh, Mello and Matt followed suit. Beyond was doing a poor job at hiding his glee.

"Alright, so what brings you here, unless it's for more torment and mayhem?" Mello asked. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar, taking a vicious bite.

Matt suddenly blinked at him. "Holy crap, Mello! I thought you were cured of your chocolate addiction! You've not eaten any since you've been here!"

"Naw, just watching my figure while on summer break. Can't let the ladies see my choco-holic side."

The room fell silent for a moment, until Beyond said, "It must be lonely up on that pedestal."

"Shut up, B, you're one to talk about isolated pedestals," Mello told him. "And answer the question. Why are you here?"

"Can't I visit my dearest friends without having a specific reason?"

"NO!" Everyone shouted at him at the same time.

"Yeesh! Alright, alright. Don't get your diapers in a wad." Curling into himself, to make his body smaller, he deftly shrugged out of the straight jacket. He then reached into his own pocket and revealed one of the last packs of strawberry jam that he had left from the bakery. "I'm not going back to Wammy's," he said calmly, sucking on the jam.

Matt chuckled. "Alright, and how do you plan to keep yourself here?"

"Well, running away would be the obvious choice. But L knows how to hunt people down like dogs so that's pretty much out. So I thought of something else, using something that he's so familiar with and yet can so easily be turned against him."

"Uh-huh…and that would be?" The redhead prodded him.

"The internet."

"Sounds like suicide if you ask me," Near said.

"Yes…and it would be risky. But sometime tonight, L has to schedule our flights. That's when we hack the computer and delete the tickets. Oh, and there's usually no refunds on these things, so L's about to be assed-out of his money."

Mello raised his hand, but spoke before being called on. "Uh, yeah, genius, just one thing. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that he's going to figure out it was us. Wait, correction, you. No one else has motive to delete the plane tickets. No one on the task force wants us around, that's for sure."

Beyond exchanged the dried jam packet for another one. "But of course he'll know it was us. Who cares if he does? Fact of the matter is, the tickets will be deleted and our departure will be postponed for another day."

This time, Near raised his hand. "Hate to burst your bubble, but you are aware that you can buy tickets right at the counter, without scheduling it, right? You pay more, but L's no stranger to big bucks. You seem to forget where we're staying at the moment."

"Yes, I thought about that…which brings me to the last solution. We blow up the plane."

Each said a different line, but the gist of the boys' reactions was, "Are you fucking crazy?!"

"Why yes, yes I am. Thanks for noticing," Beyond said with his trademark grin.

"That's not funny!" Matt shouted. "That's…that's beyond a federal offense. That's like, an attack on the country. Then when they find out we're from Britain—"

"Correction, I'm from America," Beyond said.

Matt ignored him. "—They're going to think this was some sort of staged event by England! Or rather, people will start to frown upon England and wonder just how in the hell did they get wrapped up in this terrorist thing…"

Mello slapped him on the back to end his rambling. "No they won't, and regardless, they especially won't because Beyond's not gonna do it."

B held up his hands. "Alright, you got me."

"See?" Mello told his friend, rubbing his back from the sting of the slap.

"Doesn't mean I can't kill L though," the teenager said.

This time, everyone simply took several large steps back from him.

"Joking, just joking!" The boy laughed. "But seriously. I could. I mean, I had the perfect opportunity to today. But he and Light are too much fun to mess with. Dead corpses just aren't filled with the same…vitality."

"Beyond, you're never going to get a girlfriend like that, man," Mello told him. "Least of all, any girl like Misa Amane."

B gave a sigh like he was love-sick. "Yes, the ambrosia I so desperately need refuses to be mine. And alas, I must leave her. But have heart, my dear, for I shall return another day. Promise that you will wait for me, for the day when my heart will eternally be yours."

This time, it was Matt who gave a frustrated cry. "What's with all the gay poetry going around?! First Light, now you! That's why you like him so much! You two are just alike!"

Near quietly stood up and headed for the door. "I'm going to take my leave now because this conversation is potentially one line away from becoming disturbing."

"Yeah, I'm right behind you," Matt huffed, getting up too.

Near paused for a moment. "See, that's exactly what I'm talking about," he muttered before slipping out the room.

Beyond also got up, collecting his empty packets and the straight jacket. He shrugged the latter back over his body, then gave a simple nod to Mello. "Good day to you." Finally, he too left.

In his now empty room, Mello flopped down on his bed. With a sigh, he said, "It's hard to believe that this is really Wammy's student body. And I'm part of it!"

The drive to the airport was a solemn affair for the boys. L had woken them up at seven and after a dismal breakfast, they had loaded their belongings into the back of the spacious vehicle Watari had mysteriously produced. With half-hearted waves, they said good-bye to the others while L and the elderly man climbed into the vehicle with them and drove off.

That's how the children saw it.

The task force thought that they had died and gone to heaven!

"YEAH! No more Beyond Birthday!" Matsuda cheered. For once, the chief didn't chastise him for his exuberance.

"I must admit, a few times I thought that I might be going to jail for murder when it came to that one," he said sheepishly. "He just has a way of being so annoying!"

"Forget that, the little pale one gave me the creeps," Ide said, shuddering as he thought of Near. "Too quiet. At least with Mello's screaming, you knew what he was thinking. I don't like that quiet scheming stuff."

From somewhere, Aizawa produced a bottle of wine and began passing around plastic cups of it. Even Light received one. "To freedom!" Aizawa said.

"To freedom!" The others cheered and toasted one another.

Thus the task force became intoxicated upon the children's departure.

A jet screamed overhead and the group paused to watch it. They had reached the airport and all around them, the noise of people talking, planes starting and the scratching of luggage tires on concrete filled the air. Watari helped the younger ones grab their baggage out of the trunk and soon they too joined the cacophony of airport life.

As soon as they stepped through the double-doors, the ticket counter was visible. L headed straight for them, and behind him, the others followed. Not because they were ready to go, but this was inevitable. Beyond hadn't even tried to sabotage the tickets since it would've been a wasted effort. Each name was verified in the computer in a matter of moments, and then their baggage was checked in. After this, they were led off to the metal detectors where they and any carry-on bags would be scanned.

This was as far as L could go.

When they came to the line leading up to the devices, the detective came up short. It took the boys a moment to realize that he had paused.

"Um, something the matter, L?" Matt asked.

"You guys…you're about to go…" he said quietly.

"Last time I checked, that's what happens when you get on a plane," Mello snickered.

"Yeah…I know…but…"

"Hey, you said we can come back, right?" Beyond put in. "Don't worry, we're definitely holding you to that!" He smirked, the mischievousness glinting in his eyes.

"I suppose…"

"I kinda figured this was what you wanted," Near said, twirling his hair.

"I…you have to go," L said, swallowing hard. He knelt down and gathered the boys into a hug. "You three try to behave. Matt, keep Mello in check. Near, keep succeeding. And Mello…let's try not to kill Roger from stress, okay?" He gave them another tight squeeze before standing up in front of Beyond.

The boy had actually worn the straight jacket to the airport.

"You know they're going to make you take that off, right?" L asked him.

Beyond gave a half shrug. "Yeah, but it's part of my carry-on stuff, so I can put it back on once I'm through the checkpoint. Which I most definitely plan to." His grin widened.

"You have got to be the most disturbing soul I have ever met," L said, as he stepped forward to hug him as well. "But I'll admittedly miss you," he whispered. "Not your antics, but the smart, cunning person that made you a Wammy's kid to begin with."

"You are aware that you're unleashing me on your pupils again, right?" Beyond said to him.

"Yeah, but you'll be practice for them to sharpen their claws on. They have to start somewhere and there's nowhere better than your own back yard."

The teenager gave a full smile this time, stepping away from him. The others gave their final waves before making their way deeper into the crowd. Within moments, they could no longer be seen.

In a spurt of emotion that L couldn't place, he found himself taking a few steps in the direction that they had gone. Watari reached out and grabbed his arm. L raised deep, questioning eyes to his mentor, and the man simply shook his head. L understood. With a slow nod, he began shuffling his way out of the airport.

There was still a moment though, when he paused to look back and smiled at what was and what was to come.

~.~.~.~.~

It was sometime when they only had roughly ten minutes left till boarding that it happened. All of the departure boards began flashing and the times and flights became a jumbled mess. Security scattered everywhere, trying to calm the masses and the workers frantically consulted each other as they tried to fix the dilemma.

In all of this, four children remained perfectly calm. When the lights stopped flashing, the schedules appeared to be back in order, and the moment was dismissed as a quick fritz in the system. When their flight was called, the four boys stood up and headed to the other terminal across from their present one.

The woman standing at the hangar corridor gave a puzzled look at the schedule, swearing that the current flight wasn't until later. Oh well…"All aboard flight 263 to the United States!" The attendant called out. The oldest boy opened a folder that had been in his hands and showed her four tickets dated for that location. She nodded and waved them through.

Scheduled hacking of airport: check

Tickets purchased online: check

Defiance of authority and all rules: most definitely a check.

It seemed their summer adventures weren't quite over yet…

There is one final chapter related to this story in my series Death Note: My Note, the A.D. Williams Files. It's the last story in that collection so you can simply skip to it. Additionally, I wrote a one-shot story called One to Grow On for L's birthday but it's within the Laments universe.

Though this is an edited version of the original story, I still want to give massive thanks to the love I received initially when writing it. It's hard to put in words, but even years later, I still smile fondly at the fun I had with this story. I've edited out my initial babbling author notes from just about every chapter, but I do want it to be known that I'm extremely grateful to each and every one of you, both the old and new readers. ^_^