Note: Just a little oneshot written quickly at work. YES I am writing fanfiction at work. XD
Takeshi Obata looked at the character he had just drawn. Somehow, as much as he liked to draw that character, from the early days of the blond child to his now adult appearance, leather-clad and his face marred with that horrible scar, something was missing.
Takeshi looked hard at the sketch, but no, he couldn't place it. The scar was already large enough, the hair was perfect, the black garments covering the lean body totally in adequation with the character, the sunglasses making him look cool enough. He tried to remove them, but drew them back as soon as he had erased them. It wasn't that.
Tired of searching, he left his desk, and walked to the window, stirring as he looked at the busy street outside. Maybe a little distraction would help, or he would just get rid of that feeling once he got back at his desk later, he had just worked too much and needed a break, yeah, that was it.
"Hey!" a voice called from behind. Takeshi turned around, but seeing nothing (and why should he see something? He was living here alone after all...), he mumbled to himself that it had come from the street, or maybe someone in the outside hall of the apartment complex.
"Hey!" Takeshi started. There was someone in the room, the voice was too clear to come from elsewhere.
Checking his surroundings, he saw a tuft of red hair emerge from an old page, a draft of the pages already published, representing some young boys gathered in front of a screen in Wammy's common room, waiting to talk to L.
"Hey, Mister Obata!" the small creature called, jumping out of the case and standing on the desk.
Takeshi opened wide eyes. This couldn't be, he had probably fallen asleep while working, he was really overdoing it lately. Damn schedule and timelines...
But the tiny person was staring at him with pleading eyes. More than that, the deep blue eyes were showing despair and hurt.
It may be a dream, but it was impossible to ignore such a pained look. Takeshi approached, and the little creature raised himself on the tip of his toes, a glimmer of hope passing in his pupils.
Takeshi hardly remembered this character, for it was just a random boy drawn weeks ago to fill a case that had to be full of other boys his age. He was around twelve maybe.
"What... who... how... can it be possible?" Takeshi stuttered, hardly recovering from the shock.
"You forgot me!" the small boy whined, eyes glistening with tears threatening to fall, "You took him but you forgot me!"
Takeshi stared, his eyes still as wide as plates. What was he talking about? Who did he take?
Maybe he should just run away, not listen. Could that creature be an evil demon in disguise (it had to be a disguise since the tiny redhead wasn't even close to being scary), or some hallucination?
But somehow, the tears now rolling on the little person's cheeks wrung his heart. There was so much sincerity in those cries, so much need, that it couldn't be ignored.
"What do you want?" Takeshi asked, as softly as he could. He could have asked how the boy had arrived here, in that state, whatever, but he wasn't even sure he wanted to know. The less he would know about this mystery, the less he risked some divine fury (you never know, maybe demons are good actors).
"Mello! You took him away from me! Why did you leave me behind?" the sobs were heartbreaking, and Takeshi felt a sudden lump in his throat.
"Mello? You mean, you know him?" That was a stupid question, Mello had been drawn in that same sketch weeks ago, so it was more than likely they knew each other. Wait. What was he thinking? Takeshi rubbed his temples. He was becoming insane. Now he was beginning to give inanimated characters a connection. He really should tell Tsugumi that he needed holidays and would take a break.
"Of course I know him! Where is he? You know it!" the plead became more and more insistant.
"He's... well... he's older now, and he was in the Mafia and now..." Takeshi couldn't be saying that. No, it was just surreal. Mello wasn't really in the Mafia, Tsugumi just imagined that for the scenario, but Mello wasn't actually an ex Mafia mob... Mello didn't even exist in reality! But how do you explain that to an hallucination? And why do you even try to explain anything to an hallucination?
"Mafia? Mafia?" the little freckled face decomposed itself, "Why didn't you stop him? Is he ok?"
"He's fine, don't worry... but why would I have stopped him? It's the story, it was required..." Takeshi didn't even know if he or Tsugumi had any control of the story anymore. One of the characters was now talking to him, so he probably didn't even have any control over his sanity.
"I want to be with him! Please! You don't understand what you've done!" the voice broke, and Takeshi swore he heard a crack coming from the tiny person's chest.
"What's your name?" the man asked. It was a stupid question. He or Tsugumi had never named him. He wasn't supposed to have one, he was just a random filling.
"I don't know... What did Mello say?" the small creature's hopeful eyes were fixated on him, and he didn't have the heart to reply. Mello never said anything! And he would never do it... It was just impossible! "Has he never told you about me? Did he miss me?"
"Yes, he missed you." came the sudden answer. Takeshi's eyes had drifted to the sketch he had drawn a few minutes ago, when rational thoughts battled against the extreme weirdness of the situation, and the reply was an evidence.
Carefully, he grabbed the redhead between his index and thumb, and deposited him on the freshly inked page.
"Matt!"
Fair hair flew with a sudden move of the Mello character's head, as another form slid in the case, color fading to black and white as his body flattened from the desk to the page.
"Matt..." Leather-clad arms caught the boy as he fell in the corner of the page.
Wide-eyed again, Takeshi witnessed the freckled boy turning to an adult in a split second in the other's embrace.
"Matt... I missed you..." said Mello before kissing the newly named boy turned man tenderly.
Smiling, Takeshi picked up his keys on the desk, and left the apartment. He would resume his work later, but for now, he was one too many.
Takeshi felt the tears run along his cheeks, as he finally finished that new panel he had been working on for days. The manga was almost over, Tsugumi had given him the rest of the scenario, and Near would finally defeat Kira.
But for him, the story had just ended.
"I'm sorry..." he whispered, taking a last look at the two bodies lying in separate cases on his desk, one leaking blood on the pavement, the other surrounded in flames, "I'm sorry, goodbye..."