Mello had been lying back on his bed for the past few hours, his attention just on the metal ring that now inhabited his wrist. How the hell L had thought to get handcuffs that would match their wrists, he had no idea. He must have planned this. What a sneaky bastard. Then again, L never came unprepared. He just had to question how he expected this to work. From his point of view, this would only make his and Near's relationship even worse. Anyone would get fed up with someone after more than a week of their company. It was how things worked. Perhaps L was just socially incompetent enough to not know that. His studying would be disrupted, too. Not even Matt was allowed in whilst he studied.

He then looked over to the pale boy sitting with his back against the bed that was to be in the same room for as long as this would take, a small frown on his face. How he managed to look so serene in such a situation was completely beyond his understanding. It obviously irritated him. Even with a long chain attached to his wrist, he managed to continue to build a dice tower steadily, and without knocking it over once. It was the blind irritation that caused him to jerk his hand and pull it taught, so that Near's hand went straight through the tower and it collapsed around him. He could have sworn he saw a slightly surprised expression on his face when they rained down on him. Mello just chuckled, and put his hands behind his head, finding the ceiling less irritating – although, admittedly not as interesting – to look at.

"Why did you do that?" Near's voice broke his train of thought, and he shifted his eyes over to the pale boy.

"What do you mean, why? I hate you. What other reason do I need?" What cause would Near have for a stupid question like that? He'd never questioned his actions before. Near always seemed to know everything about everyone. He didn't think he'd even asked him anything like that before.

"But why?" Couldn't he look away? Near's eyes were enough to freak anyone out after long. "It was a petty thing to do, right?"

Mello only narrowed his eyes in his direction.

"Surely you would only need to do something like that if you felt there was no other way to get under my skin. It seemed like you didn't-"

"Will you just shut up for once?" Mello snapped back. "What's behind all this? Why the sudden need to provoke me?"

"I'm making conversation." Near went back to trying to build up the first layer of a tower. But his roommate had already dropped to the floor and grabbed the chain with one hand, yanking it away from the ground.

"That's a lie." He sneered. "You're going to have to start telling me the truth, Near. And I'm not intending on leaving you alone until you start doing so."

"Only if you do." Near's piercing gaze flickered up to meet his again, but with an unmeasurable amount of calm and something else he couldn't place. His expression dropped, and he let go of the chain.

"Fine. You really want an answer that much?" He leaned forward. "Because I despise you so much that I'm willing to resort to such petty things to show you. I absolutely hate you. No amount of time chained to you is going to change that, and it will most probably increase it."

The frustrating thing was that he didn't even look fazed. Near just didn't care, in Mello's eyes. He didn't care at all about whether or not he hated him, and he was indifferent towards him – probably the worst thing he could feel about him.

"We'll see." He just looked back to the floor. That was it. That was all he had to say.

"What?" Mello just stared at him incredulously. It was as if he doubted him. Or, as if he doubted that Mello hated him as much as he said he did. "What do you mean, 'we'll see'?"

"Exactly what the phrase implies." Near looked up again, but this time his eyes were different. Less emotionless and like black pits, and more… jeering. As if he was silently laughing at him. All Near seemed to do was try to ransack his thoughts.

He hated him.

It wasn't fair that Near seemed to know everything about him and yet Mello couldn't work anything out properly. That had to change. No matter what, Near always had the last word, and if he hit him, the higher ground. Mello had to try to change it, at least. If this took a week or more, he would try to find out something he didn't know about Near. Was he really scared of anything? Of course. He had to be. No human is fearless, and no one is perfect. Not even a well-behaved, quiet little genius such as him. With that information, Mello could have a shot at finally surpassing him.

"Very well." A strange calm had settled over him, instead of the normal blind anger. It didn't seem to unsettle his rival, but it must have done, even only slightly. "Sweet dreams, Near." He got up again, this time not even knocking down what he'd managed to build. This was new. He just climbed into the bed, shooting the boy a knowing smile, and rolled over.

He didn't see Near stare over at the bed, with a delicate frown very different to the expression he was harbouring before. Mello was going to go beyond the usual ways of annoying him. Despite L's good intentions, this could only lead to disaster, and perhaps some serious harm could end up being inflicted.

Well, I kind of failed with the whole 'updating regularly' thing. To get me back into the swing of this story, here's a short chapter. I kind of want to change the tone to something a little more intense. I just find that easier to write. I really hope I finish this but I don't know where I'm going.